By Peter Schweitzer
PoHo contributor

We can now throw college coach Rick Pitino on the scrap heap of public figures undone by a sex scandal.

Pitino, a self-described devout Roman Catholic, has become embroiled in a sex scandal involving payola for an abortion. Of course, that’s not how Pitino’s lawyer describes it but that what’s going to stick. Six years ago, he had a tryst with Karen Sypher in a restaurant of all places. When confronted with the news that she was going to bear the fruit of his loins, Pitino offered her money “for health insurance.”

She says Pitino offered to pay for an abortion. Sypher describes the relationship as non-consensual and is facing extortion charges. Now, Pitino is fighting to save his job in Louisville.

None of this would be newsworthy if the coach hadn’t worn religion on his sleeve for so long. He portrayed himself as the family man, the devout Catholic. Now, he’s caught confronting the dirty truth about relations with a woman to whom he wasn’t married. Time to go to confession? Perhaps. Better yet, shut the hell up about your religious convictions and coach basketball! That’s what you’re paid to do. If the good people of Louisville wanted a sermon they can go to their local church. You created this mess by publicly professing your beliefs and your values. Now you have to live with the stark contradiction of reality.

A rural Alabama family physician, Benjamin made some headlines rebuilding her nonprofit Gulf Coast medical clinic in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Obama said during the news conference announcing the pick, “For all the tremendous obstacles that she has overcome, Regina Benjamin also represents what’s best about health care in America, doctors and nurses who give and care and sacrifice for the sake of their patients.”

Benjamin calls the job a physician’s dream. “I cannot change my family’s past,” she said. “I can be a voice in the movement to improve our nation’s health care and our nation’s health. I want to be sure that no one falls through the cracks as we improve our health care system.”

Read more about Benjamin below the jump:

Read Benjamin’s biography here.

Her Wikipedia page

Now they have — in George: The Poor Little Rich Boy Who Built The Yankee Empire, the laugh-out-loud biography by St. Petersburg author Peter Golenbock.

Golenbock’s prior written collaborations with Yankee greats Billy Martin, Graig Nettles and Sparky Lyle provide him unique historical background on Steinbrenner and the 36-year-long Yankee soap opera. In fact, Lyle has been quoted as saying that his intense dislike for Steinbrenner was the “inspiration” for his collaboration with Golenbock on the 1979 bestselling book The Bronx Zoo.

Without George Steinbrenner there would be no A-Rod, no Jeter, and Vinny LeCavalier would be working in the off-season painting houses to make ends meet. But was he a brilliant tactician who carefully plotted his ascent in pro sports?  Hardly. But he was a good showman, and it is this quality — combined with an inability to envision failure and a penchant for suspending rules and reality — that Golenbock says was the real reason he was able to build the most valuable sports franchise in the world, becoming a cultural icon in the process (not to mention a running joke on Seinfeld).

From Golenbock's book: Steinbrenner vs. Costanza in an episode of "Seinfeld."

Steinbrenner’s middle name is Michael, but Machiavelli might have been more appropriate. Among the revelations in the book: he once sold stock owned by his wife without her knowledge to keep his minor league basketball team afloat. At the time Joan Steinbrenner had begun divorce proceedings against George. The divorce filing was later rescinded and they remain married today.

That’s not to say that Steinbrenner doesn’t have a good heart when it comes to those less fortunate. Stories abound in the last chapter of the book about the softer side of George, whether he’s paying for a poor kid’s college tuition, helping the families of fallen police officers in Tampa and NYC, or rebuilding a ball field in a poor neighborhood.

But then again, he may be the only convicted (if later pardoned) felon to have a high school named in his honor. Golenbock recounts Steinbrenner’s participation in the Watergate scandal — the only time other than his two suspensions from baseball when the music finally stopped for George and there was no one left to clean up his mess. But even after pleading guilty to two felonies for funneling thousands of dollars to Nixon’s Committee to Re-elect the President — better known as CREEP — George didn’t serve a day in jail: Reagan pardoned him in 1989. Heck, a guy who jumps the turnstile at Yankee Stadium would receive a harsher punishment.

Some of the funniest stories in the book come from Steinbrenner’s days in Cleveland before he acquired the Yankees. It was no stroke of luck that young George avoided the cold and bullets of Korea and instead wound up running the sports program at an Ohio military base just miles from his family home. According to Golenbock, George’s special treatment was the direct result of a deal his father cut with the Air Force. But George being George almost killed the deal. He complained that the lights on the ball fields were substandard and attempted to get them replaced by the Army, but was told no money was available. So George went ahead and ordered the lights anyway while his base commander was away in Washington, telling the lighting company that he would pay for them if the Army didn’t. When the commander returned from his trip, he was surprised to find the base lit up like Runway 22R at JFK. Of course, Henry Steinbrenner came to his son’s rescue and the Air Force paid for the lights.

Peter Golenbock at Yankee Stadium.

Steinbrenner’s toughest critic in the book is cable executive Leo Hindery, who created the YES network for Steinbrenner. The YES Network, which telecasts Yankee games and programming, is valued at over $2 billion. It ensures that the Yankees will continue to be able to afford high-priced free agents for the foreseeable future. Hindrey lets George have it with both barrels, including telling Golenbock that Steinbrenner’s daughters are the brains of the family (but George will never allow women to run the team), and that the minority owners, who own 40 percent of the Yankees, haven’t made a nickel in 30 years due to Steinbrenner’s profligate spending on players and his family.

Many interesting personal tidbits come to light in this book.  Among them:
• Steinbrenner was raised a Christian Scientist.
• He made up a story that he played pro football for the NY Giants in an effort to land a college football coaching job after graduating from Williams.
• He didn’t really understand the rules of baseball when he first became the Yankee owner, as evidenced by his tirade against a scorekeeper who failed to award the Yankees a run on a play where the third out was made.
• He stormed the field during a Hillsborough Community College baseball game at the Yankees complex, threatening to stop the game because the Yankee groundskeeper had the HCC team play on the wrong field. (Yes, a greenskeeper was fired.)
• He announced that Yankees manager Dick Howser, who had won 103 games the prior season, was stepping down to take advantage of a lucrative real estate opportunity in Florida. Howser’s lucrative real estate opportunity turned out to be George paying off his home mortgage in exchange for his resignation.
• And Golenbock puts into print what most people have been whispering for the past five years — that Steinbrenner is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
This book confirms two things.
There is only one George Steinbrenner. And the world would be a lot less entertaining without him.

Scott Farrell hosts The Farrell Files on the 10Connects Morning News. He’s also a contributor to Wayne Garcia’s Creative Loafing blog, The Political Whore.

Billy Mays at the Mickey D’s drive-thru …

h/t to Watch This Now

Reporters are gathering at the Hillsborough Medical Examiner’s Office for a noon newser at which a preliminary report into the death of famed TV pitchman Billy Mays is set to be released. We’ll pass along coverage on Twitter (follow @poho) and over at the Daily Loaf blog.

For some, that would be duplicitous; Busansky, however, meant it and was close friends with just about everybody she met, forging an instant connection, building communities and circles of influence, her longtime friend Jeannie McGuire told the gathered mourners. McGuire had one of my favorite lines of the funeral, talking about Busansky’s sense of fashion as not quite classic but “classic — plus dramatic.”

There were more laughs than tears.

Tampa Tribune columnist Steve Otto, who long held a valued spot on Busansky’s speed dial and in heart, called his politician-friend “a tornado with hair.” Busansky’s daughter, Rebecca, read a 2005 e-mail that came to Busansky’s husband, Sheldon, from a woman that Phyllis had helped in the 1960s get into a college. The woman was hoping that Sheldon was related to Phyllis so he could pass along her thanks.

Most touching was the remembrance of her son, Alex, who said he was happy to have had 47 years with his mother. “I am my mother’s son,” he told the crowd, which flowed over into a separate room and outside, where monitors were set up. “If you’ve met her, you’ve met me.”

The room was full of politicians and elected officials, from Mayor Pam Iorio to the county commission, city council and constitutional officers — including Gov. Charlie Crist. Even the man that Busansky vanquished in the 2008 elections, former Elections Chief Buddy Johnson, attended, making for an uncomfortable moment when Rabbi Richard Birnholz said he had endorsed Phyllis in that election because it was the community’s only hope to clean up a hopelessly bungled office. Johnson later shook hands with people in the parking lot.

For progressives, it was a trip down memory lane, a viewing of some of the people who helped Tampa and Hillsborough County make great strides during an eight-year period, from 1988 to 1996, when social conservatives began their destructive takeover of county government and the rise of suburban development gave them the numbers to consistently beat urban progressives at the ballot box. Busansky’s quarterbacking of the county’s landmark indigent health care program, part fiscal sense-part social justice, that was a highlight of that era.

A roundup of the media coverage after the jump:
(photos courtesy of Stehlik Photography)

TBO.com: Mourners praise Busansky as true leader

Tampabay.com: Despite the weather, a full house for Phyllis Busansky

ABC Action News: Family, friends remember Phyllis Busansky

By Peter Schweitzer
PoHo contributor

He was supposedly hiking — getting away from it all, clearing his head.

When 2012 Presidential wannabe South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford went AWOL late last week, most observers pointed to another case of Sanford being Sanford. As time went by and no one including his own wife could account for his whereabouts, the rumors began to fly. Yet, no one imagined the truth would be as bizarre as what the governor himself revealed on Wednesday afternoon: he’d been unfaithful to his wife; leaving all to wonder about the little side trip to Argentina (first reported as a hiking trip in the Appalachians).

What a week for white, male, conservative, Christian politicians. First, Sen. John Ensign caught with the wife of a staffer, then former Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair charged with putting a real life smackdown on his two children, then the coup de grace-Sanford and his hike up a skirt.

Some will cry foul. I’m picking on the conservative, Christian Republicans again. Nope, not this time. The facts speak for themselves. I’m not moralizing here. I think I have a pretty decent understanding of human nature and its foibles. I’m not critical of their weakness and their failures.

Rather, I find fault with their prior history of moralizing and judging others, holding themselves above the rest of us plebes because they’re men of values, family values no less. My issue with these men lies not in their professions of faith.

There’s a rule in journalism that holds true in life as well: Show me, don’t tell me. If you’re a man (or woman) of faith show me that faith by your actions toward your wife, toward your fellow human being, and toward those whom you serve. I’d prefer to discover your faith in your actions, not in your pronouncements. Let me discover your work with the poor, disenfrancished, and those who can’t offer you a political donation or a position of power. Let me discover your service to the community. Don’t talk about it, just do it. I don’t want to hear you talk about it.

Love this story. Just love this story.

Soon-to-be-former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford first came up missing, then his staff explained that he was hiking alone on the Appalachian Trail, then earlier today came word she was cruising off the coast of Argentina. Now, the truth.

Yes, it’s another woman.

From CNN:

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday, amid speculation over his whereabouts for the last several days, that he has been engaged in an extramarital affair with an Argentinian woman.

“I’ve been unfaithful to my wife,” Sanford told a news conference in Columbia, the state capital. “I developed a relationship with what started as a dear, dear friend from Argentina.”

His voice choking at times, Sanford apologized to his wife and four sons, his staff and supporters, and said he would resign immediately as head of the Republican Governors Association. The affair was discovered five months ago, Sanford said.

Watch the video of his admission from a live news conference after the jump:

Phyllis will be well remembered in our hearts for her brave leadership, for her open, gregarious style and for her ability to fix problems that were tough to tackle. Her legacy as the primary author of the Hillsborough County Health Care Plan lives on every day in the improved health of our neighbors and our community. She was truly passionate about making sure those who least could afford medical services had an advocate on their side. She already was showing that passion as Supervisor of Elections, working to guarantee that voters’ rights were protected in Hillsborough County. My thoughts and prayers are with her family. She will be sorely missed.

From Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio:

I am shocked by the death of Phyllis. How sad that death claimed her just as she was embarking on a new challenge that she loved very much. The public needed her and this was her calling. I had the pleasure of serving with Phyllis on the County Commission and her passion for helping those who needed help the most was something I always admired. This is a great loss to both her family and to our community.

From Congressman Gus Bilirakis, who Busansky ran against, unsuccessfully, in 2006:

Phyllis Busansky was a dedicated public servant, whose work benefited many people in our area. I am saddened to learn of her passing, and my thoughts and prayers are with her family.

The Pasco County Democratic Party:

We are so saddened by the death of Phyllis Busansky, Supervisor of Elections of Hillsborough County. We have been so proud of Phyllis – of her committment to public service and her generous heart and spirit. She passed away in the night while at a conference in St. Augustine. She will be missed by us all.

Congressman Kendrick Meek of South Florida, the leading Democratic contender for the U.S. Senate in 2010:

This morning I was personally saddened by the news of the sudden death of a remarkable public servant, Phyllis Busansky. She was a friend of mine and her passing is nothing short of tragic. Phyllis put public service first and she helped improve the lives of countless people in her community and beyond. That never ending desire to serve others made Phyllis a remarkable leader of the highest order. May her family be comforted by the many members of a tightly knit community that admired her which spans Hillsborough County and the state of Florida during this incredibly sad time.

Phyllis Busansky was a friend of mine, and I worked on her various political efforts, including her stint as the director of welfare reform in Florida, so it is with great sadness I pass along news of her death today, from ABC Action News:

Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Phyllis Busansky has been found dead in her hotel room in St. Augustine, according to Pam Iorio.

Ms. Busansky was supposed to be participating in a conference in St. Augustine. When she didn’t show, coworkers came looking for her, and found her dead in her hotel room.

Foul play is not suspected.

I spoke with a mutual friend who mentioned that Phyllis had a health problem earlier this year in which she was hospitalized but that they thought it was simply hyperventilation. Busansky did battle lung cancer in 2007 but told friends she was cleared of the disease after surgery.

The St. Petersburg Times weighs in with this info:

She was 72 and had battled lung cancer. She died in her sleep, said Sigrid Tidmore, spokeswoman for the Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections office.

“Honestly, this is all I know,” Tidmore said.

Tidmore was with Busansky last night, before she went to sleep about 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. She said Busansky was not complaining of any pain. When Busansky didn’t respond to phone calls this morning after not showing up to today’s conference meetings, hotel security went to check on her and found her dead, Tidmore said.

(Busansky’s office says she was 73, but the Times says records show she was 72.)

Tidmore went on to say that everyone connected to Busansky was in shock, that she was very vibrant and had lots of plans for the office. I can attest; I ran into Phyllis two weeks ago in Bamboozle in downtown Tampa and she was her usual exuberant self, eliciting a promise from me that I would pay a call on her to hear about her innovations at the office in a few weeks, after she was done traveling.

Busansky was a mainstay of local Democratic politics for the past two decades, after winning a seat on the Hillsborough County Commission in the late 1980s as part of a reform effort that brought progressives to that board.

Under state law, Republican Gov. Charlie Crist will appoint a successor until voters choose a new supervisor in the 2010 elections.

UPDATE: This statement just in from the Supervisor of Elections Office:

It is with great sadness the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office announces the passing of Supervisor of Elections Phyllis Busansky. Mrs. Busansky, 73, was attending the Florida State Association of Supervisor of Elections conference in St. Augustine with members of her staff at the time. She passed away sometime during the night. The cause of death is not known at this time.

“Phyllis,” as she was known to everyone, was an inspiration to generations of Hillsborough County residents and a champion of good government. Over the last six months she brought order, focus and vision to the Elections office. Her entire staff is deeply saddened by her passing. However, they will continue to perform professionally and deliver the kind of election services Phyllis was determined to have.